Thanks! None of that was explained in anything I could find via Google. I assumed it was supposed to be proper Latin since it was official Vatican s...

I don't know the name for it, but this is the tune I always associate with it. Probably because my father sang it this way in his story-telling.........

I don't know about the moo, but rheumy was a common way of describing the type of wet foggy weather that would give you the sniffles.

I think there's an overall shift at work. Several . _ . words are shifting to _ . _ lately. Distribute and contribute are going that way.

I don't see how "against their own free will" enters into the question. People end up in prison for acts they committed by their own free will, know...

When I sort of roll both choices around in my mouth, I don't detect any real difference in connotation. The word DO tends to hold a bit more stress ...

Those subjunctives are somewhat overdone and hypercorrected, even by 1920's standards. The subjunctive has always been appropriate in situations ...

Probably not Boston, Despite its reputation, Boston isn't all that far from median. But there are some dialects that include an overall constant s...

If we wanted to get really persnickety, we'd have to specify that most plants don't eat. They use sunlight and air and electrons to generate edible ...

Fugato! YES! That's it! THANKS!!!!

Could just be a family version or a gradually altered version of Ach du lieber Himmel.   My German-born grandma had lots of tangled part-Ge...

When I'm unsure of a foreign idiom, Google Images will often give a clue. In this case it yields a lot of literal sunny rabbits AND a lot of dancing...

I suspect the original meaning of slap-sauce was close to gourmand, and developed the connotation of a sponge or hanger-on. From an English-Italian ...